The restaurant has been in its current location off Eight Mile
Road on the Highway 99 frontage road for eight years. But the
history goes back many more years. The Royce family began farming
in the area in 1939. Fifty years later, Sandy Royce and his son
Dave farmed and owned a fruit stand and had a booth at the Farmer's
Market.

The fruit stand on Highway 12 became a popular spot for a car
show and barbecue on Friday nights, Dave Royce said. They used to
have a concession at 99 Speedway, which is now closed. Royce's
father Sandy, who died earlier this year, was into racing and had a
hot rod.

The car show has been going on for 17 seasons with 60 to 70 cars
each week from April to October. Although the season is over this
year, the Corvettes of Lodi club meets at Royce Farms with their
corvettes the first Thursday of each month.

Inside the restaurant, there are model tractors and racing
memorabilia on display. The wooden walls are a light green. It's
kind of like a barn.

"What a better place to be than in a barn," Royce said. "It just
fits."

While the restaurant's three staples are grilled tri-tip,
barbecue chicken and smoked ribs, Royce Farms has won awards for
best chili and best chicken wings. All of the sauces and soups are
family recipes made from scratch. The pesto recipe is 90 years old,
Royce said. In addition, vegetables in season are used. They
currently offer a squash and mushroom frittata.

"We've got some good eats," he added.

I tried the starters. After all, because they have prize-winning
chicken wings, I had to see for myself why they won. The chicken
wings were tender with a spicy, tangy sauce. Royce said it's a
hickory horseradish sauce. The deep-fried mozzarella pesto was a
treat. The deep-fried cheese-stuffed olives had a crunchy breading
giving way to gooey cheese, which was quite tasty.

The Royce Farms restaurant in Lodi is most
popular for its barbecued ribs. (Angelina Gervasi/News-Sentinel)

Then came the main course: smoked ribs. The slab of ribs on a
bed of lettuce was so big it hung off the edge of the plate next to
a heaping amount of pesto and half of a cob of corn. The ribs were
smoky, and the sauce had a zing to it. The pesto was a leaf-green
color and was creamy with the right amount of basil and garlic.

If customers want to take some barbecue sauce home (along with
their take-home boxes), it won't be long before they can; Royce
said they plan to bottle sauce.

Other than ribs, chicken and tri-tip, the menu includes
barbecued burgers, sandwiches, alfredo pasta, spaghetti, homemade
lasagna, Italian wedding soup, chili and more. And if there's any
room left, they have dessert.